(1) William
Sandys
signed a will on 23 April 1546, and died about 1548 in England. He was
buried in Church of St. Michael's, Hawkshead, Lancashire, England.
William supported Henry VIII and was made Receiver General for the Liberties
at Furnace. He lived in Hawkshead, Furnace Fells. His principal residence
was Esthwaite Hall, but he owned Graythwaite Hall as well. His death date
is disputed, some give it as late as 1558, but apparently it was between
23 April 1546 (date of will) and 1549 when during the easter term
a suit was filed in the Duchy Court of Lancaster against William and Christopher
Sandys, sons of William Sandys, deceased, in regard to certain smithies
in Furnance Fells granted 15 November 1537 by Henry VIII jointly to William
Sandys and William Sawrey.
William was married to Margaret
Dixon,
died after 1548. Claims that Margaret was of royal descent have been
disproven by virtue of the fact that such genealogies place five generations
being born and dying in the space of about 25 years.
William and his wife are emtombed in the Sandys Choir in the church of
St Michael's at Hawkshead, under a table monument. His will is no longer
found but was quoted from in 1774.Children:

George,
died on 10 September 1547 in battle on the field of Musselburg, resided
at Graywaite and Field Head in

Hawkshead.

William,
died about 1558; resided in Colton Hall and Cornishead Priory; was Baliff
of the Liberties in Furnace. Had issue by both wives.

Edwin,
mentioned below

Christopher,
died in April 1588, and was buried on 15 April 1588 in Hawkshead Church,
England.

Myles,
was a resident of Latimers and Isthahamp, Bucks and Brimpsfield, Gloucester
Co., and of the Middle Temple, London. He was High Sheriff of Gloucester.

Anthony,
died about November 1591, was buried on 13 November 1591 in Hawkshead Church,
England. His descendant, Major George Owen Sandys occupied Esthwaite Hall
in 1915.

Anne,
was named in her fathers will

(2) Edwin
Sandys,
Archbishop of York,
(at right),
was born in 1516 or 1519 in Hawkshead Parish, Furnace Fells, Lancashire,
England. He signed a will on 1 August 1587, and died on 10 July 1588, and
was buried in Southwell Minister, Nottinghamshire, England. He had an estate
probated on 22 May 1590, and he was buried in Southwell Minister, Nottinghamshire,
England. Edwin was educated at St. Johns College, Cambridge University
where he matriculated in 1533. In 1547 he was master of Catharine
Hall. He was named Rector of the University in 1542, Master of St. Catherine's
Hall in 1547, and was Vice Chancellor of the Cambridge when Edward VI died
in 1553.
Edwin supported the cause of Lady Jane Gray. Upon the death of Edward
VI, Edwin took a stand on the side ofProtestantism,
preaching a sermon before the University and the Duke of Northumberland
which committed himpublically. The sermon was printed, Mary (a Catholic)
was proclaimed Queen, and Sandys and was committed to the Tower of London
on 25 July 1553. Finally obtaining release, he crossed to the Continent
and joined the group of exiles who were to be the forerunners in England
of the church puritans. At Zurich, to which he had gone following the death
of his first wife and their only child at Strasbourg, he lived for a time
in the house of Peter Martur.
After Elizabeth's accension in 1558 Edwin returned to England. He was made
bishop of Worcester 21 December 1559 and in 1570 he was promoted to bishop
of London. Edwin was consecrated the Archbishop of York on 8 March 1576/1577,
in which office he was promient in the ecclesiastical and politcial disputes
of his era. In 1916 the family Bible of Edwin Sandys with entries
of his childrens birth in his hand was existent at the Grammer School,
Hawskshead. He wrote a lengthy will which still survives.
Edwin Sandys' personality and convictions brought him many enemies, but
he accepted them serelely by saying that, " . . . when Gods cause cometh
to hand, I forget what displeasure may follow." He believed that
celibacy was not required of the clergy, he opposed vestments and the making
of the sign of the cross, he fought against the encroachments of secular
government upon church property, and he opposed Queen Elizabeth I on the
subject of images. He was criticized for devising to his eldest son Scrooby
Manor (at left),
a noble building situated on the great road to Scotland which had been
given to the See ofYork.
Scrooby Manor was occupied by the postmaster William
Brewster
who traveled to America aboard the Mayflower and was Elder of the Plymouth
church. On the whole, Edwin was admired and respected, and generally
had the full support of Elizabeth. His great scholarship was evidenced
in his sermons (now availabale in hardback as "The Sermons of Edwin Sandys",
his translations (through the books of Chronicles) for the Bishop's Bible,
his various pastoral epistles and other letters, and in his founding of
the Hawkshead Grammar School.
Edwin Sandys married first his cousin Mary Sandys of Essex, who, with their
only child, James, died while he was in exile between 1554 and 1560.
Edwin was married a second time to Cecily
Wilsford
on 19 February 1558/1559. Cecily signed a will on 17 January 1610/1611,
and died between 17 January 1610/1611 and 12 February 1610/1611. She had
an estate probated on 12 February 1610/1611 in Prerogative Court of Canterbury,
England. She was buried in Woodham Ferras, Essex Co., England. According
to her epitaph, "She led a most Christian and holy life, carefully educated
her children, wisely governed her familye, charitably relieved the poore,
and was a true mirror of a Christian matron."

Children:

Sir Samuel,
born on 28 December 1560, died on 18 August 1623, buried in Wickhamford,
Worcestershire, England. He was Sheriff of Worcestershire 16 James I (1618),
a member of Parliment 13 (1615) and 18 (1620) James I, and a member of
the Virginia Company. He held manors at Worchestershire, Essex, and Yorkshire.
A monument to him and his wife, Mercy Culpepper, stands at the Wickhamford
church. They had 11 children including daughter Margaret who married
Sir. Francis Wyatt, Governor of Virginia. One of his descendants, Samuel
Sandys, was created Baron Sandys in 1743.

Sir Edwin,
born on 9 December 1561, died in October 1629, was buried in Northbourne
Church, England. He married first Margaret Eveleigh; second Elizabeth
Nevinson; third Catherine Bulkeley; fourth Anne Southcott. He was
Treasurer of the Virginia Company and was instrumental in obtaining the
charter that the Pilgrims needed to be granted passage to the Americas.

Miles,
born 29 March 1563, died 1644; married Elizabeth Cooke.

William,
born 13 September 1565

Margaret,
born 22 December 1566; married Sir Anthony Aucher

Thomas,
born 3 December 1568

Anne,
born 21 June 1570; married William Barne

Henry,
mentioned below

George,
born 2 March 1576/1577; he signed the Third Charter of Virginia

(3) Henry
Sandys,
born 30 September 1572 in Furnesse Fells, Lancashire, England, died 1654
in New England; married Priscilla
Chauncey.
He was was admitted freeman of Boston in the year 1640. Henry was
one of the signers of the Third
Charter of Virgina with his brothers Edwin and George. Parents
of:

(4) James
Sands,
born 1622 in Reading, Berkshire Co., England, died 13 March 1694/1695 in
New Shoreham, Block Island, Rhode Island; married 1651 in Portsmouth, Rhode
Island, Sarah
Walker,
daughter of John
Walker
andKatherine
Hutchinson.
It was in 1658 that John with his wife came from England and landed at
Plymouth, and soon after this he undertookthe
building of a house for Mrs. Hutchinson. Capt. Sands was a young
man at the time the noted Ann Hutchinson (his wife's grandmother) was banished
her from the Massachusetts Bay Colony on account of Antinomian preaching.
Anne settled in East Chester, New York, and employed John to build her
house, the following account of which is given by the Rev. Samuel Niles,
who was the grandson of John and Sarah:

"In order to pursue her purpose she agreed with Captain James Sands, then
a young man, to build her a house, and he took a partner with him in the
business. When they had near spent their provisions, he sent his partner
for more which was to be fetched at a considerable distance. While his
partner was gone there came a company of Indians to the frame where he
was at work, and made a great shout, and sat down. After some time they
gathered up his tools, put his broad-ax on his shoulder, and his other
tools into his hands, and made signs to him to go away. But he seemed to
take no notice of them, but continued in his work. At length one of them
said, Ye-hah Mumuneketock, the English of which is, ‘Come, let us
go,’ and they all went away to the water-side for clams or oysters. [They
were near the Hudson river.] After some time they came back, and
found him still at work as before. They again gathered up his tools, put
them into his hands as before they had done, with the like signs moving
him to go away. He still seemed to take no notice of them, but kept on
his business, and when they had stayed some time, they said as before,
Ye-hah
Mumuneketock. Accordingly they all went away, and left him there at
his work – a remarkable instance of the restraining power of God on the
hearts of these furious and merciless infidels, who otherwise would doubtless
in their rage have split out his brains with his own ax. However,
the Indians being gone, he gathered up his tools and drew off, and in his
way met his partner bringing provisions, to whom he declared the narrow
escape he had made for his life. Resolving not to return, and run a further
risk of the like kind, they both went from the business."

Mrs. Hutchinson
hired others to finish her house. Soon after, she with her whole family,
sixteen in all, was murdered by the Indians.
A short time after his return from that undertaking to Massachusetts, he
became involved with the enterprise of settlingBlock
Island, three years after his arrival from England. In what year he came
to the Island is not certain, for his namedoes
not appear among the sixteen who went in April 1661, nor is it in the list
of those who met 17 August 1660 at the house of Dr. John Alcock of Roxbury
to buy the Island; and yet, in the memorandum of the survey, his name is
mentioned, along with the numbers of the lots that constituted his
sixteenth part of the Island, identifying him with the first purchasers
and settlers. His lots were numbered 12, and 14, and 15, the latter two
owned by him and John Glover. He came from Taunton, Massachusetts, to the
Island, and was soon distinguished as a prominent citizen.
In March 1664, the General Assembly of Rhode Island notified the inhabitants
of Block Island that they were under the care of the Rhode Island government,
and at the same time informed James Sands, then a freeman of Rhode Island,
to come "in to the Governor or deputy-Governor,
to take his engagement as Constable or Conservator of the peace there."
In May 1664, John Sands with Mr. Joseph Kent, presented to the General
Assembly of Rhode Island, a petition in behalf of the Islanders that Joseph
Kent, Thomas Terry, Peter George, Simon Ray, William Harris, Samuel Bearing,
John Rathbone, John Davies, Samuel Staples, Hugh Williams, Robert Guthrig,
William Tosh, Tollman Bose, William Carboone, Tristrome Dodge, John Clark,
and William Barker might be admitted as freemen of the Colony of Rhode
Island. The Assembly referred the petition to a committee consisting of
Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, and Joseph Torrey, who reported favorably
upon all the above names except Hugh Williams, against whom was a rumor
of his having said some words reproachful of the colony. After further
examination about to his loyalty, however, he was admitted freeman. John
Sands had been previously admitted, and he is probably the James Sands
mentioned as a freeman in 1655, and as a representative of the General
Court of Commissioners, held at Newport, May the 19th, 1657 (Col. Rec.,
I, p. 300, 855.). Capt. James Sands, with Thomas Terry, was the first
representative from Block Island to sit in the General Court of Commissioners
of Rhode Island, admitted such in 1665. In 1672, he was foremost in presenting
the petition to have the Island incorporated under the name of New Shoreham,
and the General Assembly granted the request, but in so doing preserved
the old name Block Island, the chartered name being "New Shoreham, otherwise
Block Island."
He understood the carpenter’s trade, as is evident from his work for Ann
Hutchinson. his knowledge helped him in erecting his own house on Block
Island. He located it a few feet east of the house later occupied by Mr.
Almanzo Littlefield, close to the mill and bridge on the road from the
Harbor to the Center, or Baptist church. He built it of stone, and Rev.
Samuel Niles, his grandson, frequently spoke of it in his history of the
Indian and French Wars. Evidence of its location is circumstantial, but
conclusive.
His near misfortune with the Natives at Anne Hutchinson's house was nearly
repeated in a later incident, an account of which survives:

"The English, fearing what might be their [the Indians’] design, as they
were drinking, dancing, and reveling after their usual customs at such
times, went to parley with them, and to know what their intentions were.
James Sands, who was the leading man among them, entered into a wigwam
where he saw a very fine brass gun standing, and an Indian fellow lying
on a bench in the wigwam, probably to guard and keep it. Mr. Sands’ curiosity
led him to take and view it, as it made a curious and uncommon appearance.
Upon which the Indian fellow rises up hastily and snatches the gun out
of his hand, and withal gave him such a violent thrust with the butt end
of it as occasioned him to stagger backward. But feeling some thing under
his feet, he espied it to be a hoe, which he took up and improved, and
with it fell upon the Indian."

In another
connection, the author Wiles says of him:

"He was a benefactor to the poor; for as his house was garrisoned, in the
time of their fears of the Indians, many poor people resorted to it, and
were supported mostly from his liberality. He also was a promoter of religion
in his benefactions to the minister they had there in his day, though not
altogether so agreeable to him as might be desired, as being inclined to
the Anabaptist persuasion. He devoted his house for the worship of God,
where it was attended every Lord’s day or Sabbath."

That he was an enterprising citizen is evident from the simple statement:
"
Mr. Sands had a plentiful estate, and gave free entertainment to all gentlemen
that came to the Island." To this it is added:
"When his house was garrisoned it became a
hospital, for several poor people resorted thither."
John was an intimate friend of Roger Williams, the first freeman on the
Island, the Orson representative from it in the Rhode Island Assembly,
the one who procured the citizenships to the Islanders as freemen and presented
to the State the petition for the chartered rights of a township; making
his house the hospitable home of visitors from abroad, the garrison, and
the place of worship for the Islanders, and a hospital for the poor and
suffering. His epitaph on his burial monument in the Block Island
cemetery reads: